Its a bit of

It's a bit of a mystery why everyone thinks the the fact that Vice President Cheney provides an alibi for Gary Condit at midday on May 1st is news. Newsweek played it as a big revelation in this July 20th 'web exclusive'. "Not until today," the authors wrote, "did Cheneyâs name surface as a potentially important witness in establishing a precise accounting for Conditâs activities during the moments that Levy is believed to have vanished."

Really? Not until today? What about this sentence from a Daily News article on June 29th?

"On the day she disappeared, according to the Condit schedule given to ABC, the congressman met with Vice President Cheney at 12:30 p.m., spent the afternoon in meetings at his congressional office and went to a 5 p.m. doctor's appointment."

The excuse for calling this news seems to be the idea that we only now know that 1 PM was the last time Levy's whereabouts can be accounted for. But even that's been known for weeks.

All Newsweek has is Cheney's office finally confirming the meeting on the record -- but the reality of this meeting was, as nearly as I can tell, never really doubted.